A breakthrough in Taiwan Women’s Art Association’s(WAA)
appeal last year is to gather one hundred cross generation male and female
artists and hold a contemporary art exhibition about gender issue, which is
presented with photographic medium. In retrospect the last few years (2004,
2009 e.g.) WAA have hosted many quality conferences, art shows, and
publications. This time WAA use specific medium in attempt to breakthrough
female single agenda, redefine art medium, and uplift the gender statement
battleground to the level of challenging gender differentiation and
identification. The 100 Gender Photographs special exhibition highlights “100
Anniversary of International Women’s Day” and indeed reinforce the recognition
and understanding of mainstream values and marginalized ethnic people, also
work in concert to construct gender equality and dissemination. The curator
Yiyi Wan has her expectations, “To portrait arguments, strategies and concepts
about gender differences, including identification, body, lust, social group,
and race.

Notwithstanding
that the curator separated exhibitors into 50 male and 50 female artists,
similar and different concepts and techniques are presented; for example, they
share idea expression about body, symbols, surrealism, situational theater,
dark room/digital photo retouching, and body without organs. Interestingly,
they also show disparity of everyday life metaphor, food, inside female body,
and the control over the sense of time and space. However, most artworks
symbolize the theme of body, which illustrates one thing: body and face has become
the staunch battlefield about gender statement and ethnic group. Susan Sontag
also said, “Aiming your lens to yourself, you look not only for potential of
camera formula contain, but also hunting inner world of yourself, or even
interior reality from the bottom layer of sub-consciousness.” (“On Photography”).

“My body is the subject of perception(consciousness),
my body is the tool of understanding(knowing) the world.”—Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The metaphor in the artwork, plants, objects in the room, part of
the body are calling a sensitive consciousness. What women care about are
reproduction and love, or even the X-ray that sees through the body; what men
care about are the paternal symbol, the origin of the world, the power to rival
but rendered to obsolete or death. Behind the mask or the booklet of “Camp
Sensibility,” continuous transvesting reveals uncertain self, photographers go
to every length to deconstruct the existent field of gender differences in the
means of theater and play. Some of the artworks are creative to apply finished
goods and form a special reference relationship towards the reflection and
banter of the language.The surrealistic
grotesque comes from Sigmund Freud, an oppressed regression of surreal space
and subject anxiety. The image in the photo transforms with the body in reality
and digital world, which complement each other and become an integral self
entity.A few documentary artworks help
us see ourselves from others.

The main scheme
of the exhibition is to examine self and others, the interdependent contradictory
relationship and cross shaping problems among all kinds of identity, nevertheless,
self-consciousness to some extend gives it a sort of still-hold oriental thinking
of survival aesthetics. When it comes to the attack on truth and reality of
mainstream values, (though unlike foreign artists’ constant thrilling
performances) they still leave an alternative interpretation to the viewers. Early
in 1980s, given Jacques Derrida urged to promote “feminine study” to an
organization and believed that it would not be sustainable if feminine study
did not deconstruct from the philosophical frame of concepts such as subject,
self, consciousness, soul and body. However, after the show, we still can give
them a big round applause but cannot help thinking about the strategies and
ideals to construct gender and rights equality conducted by WAA. What comes
next is how to transcend the individual dilemma and limitations of both sexes.